


The ID to My Heart

by basementhero



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Everyone is American, M/M, louis and zayn are mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-21 10:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4826462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/basementhero/pseuds/basementhero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam has never forgotten his university ID, and he's always been a little annoyed by people who have. The cute blonde who always needs help getting into the dorm, though, might be an exception.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The ID to My Heart

**Author's Note:**

> The university vaguely described below is very much based on the university I attend, therefore why I made everyone American.  
> I apologize for the poor title, it's meant to be a pun on "the key to my heart."

Liam had just gotten out of his 1:30 lecture (Chemistry 101, a requirement Liam was not particularly keen on, but a class he had to take nonetheless) when the clouds decided it was the opportune time to start pouring. Liam had always prided himself on being prepared, and that Thursday was no exception--having seen the forecasted rain in the morning, Liam had been sure to pack away his compact, black umbrella just for that occasion. No less than six people bumped into the young man as he made his way across campus to his dorm, everyone scurrying either because they were going to be late or because they hadn’t dressed for the weather and were hoping not to get drenched. He almost cracked his head open on the stairs leading down the hill at the bottom of which lied his residential area, but luckily Liam made it to the front entrance of his building without any trips to the hospital required.

Presley Hall looked like the other four buildings in the south residential area of the university, mostly-rectangular masses of reddish-tan bricks, lined with several floors of windows. He drew in his umbrella under the concrete awning covering the three low steps to the main entrance, shaking out the excess water as best he could before he pulled open the first of two sets of glass doors. Between the doors was a small entryway containing only a wooden bench in front of a massive window, where people usually only sat if they had forgotten their ID cards and therefore could not get through the second door. 

One such person was sitting on the bench when Liam got in. The boy had clearly been there for a while, as he wasn’t wet in the slightest. He was looking down intently at his phone, so all Liam really caught was the dyed blonde hair on the boy’s head. Liam pulled his ID out of his pocket (he’d never once forgotten it in any of the semesters he’d been at school) and tapped it to the black security box to the right of the doors. A quiet beep signaled the doors unlocking. Liam heard a rustling of fabric that he assumed meant the awaiting blonde was getting up, so he pulled open the door and held it off to the side to allow the other male to go through first. 

“Thanks, man,” the blonde nodded towards Liam as he walked through and briskly crossed the lobby towards the staircase.

Liam didn’t bother with a response considering that the other was already on his way; instead he merely made his way towards his own room on the ground floor.

Not even a full week later, the same blonde was waiting in the entryway when Liam finished his classes for the day and got back to the dorm. Liam didn’t think much of it except for perhaps a small twitch of annoyance (he was always a bit peeved when other people clearly did not value preparedness the same way he did), letting the boy in and accepting the thanks before going his own way.

Two days later, though, and the blonde was again waiting around in the entryway, locked out. He wasn’t looking at his phone like the first time or even sitting down, he was standing right beside the doors and watching Liam walk up to the building. Liam didn’t really know what to think.

“I know it’s a freshman move,” Liam quipped good-naturedly while he dug his ID out of his wallet, “but you might need to start wearing your card on a lanyard.”

The blonde blushed and ducked his head, speeding through the door as soon as it was open. Liam was a little endeared, really, even if he’d told off Louis, his roommate, the other day for similarly never remembering his ID.

For the rest of the semester, Liam let the blonde into the dorm at least once a week (and on one memorable occasion, twice in the same day). He’d eventually started getting a joking “fuck off” any time he dared to comment on the other’s forgetfulness instead of the initial blush-and-avoid-eye-contact reaction. Around the end of October he’d managed to actually ask the blonde’s name (it was Niall) and by December he’d learned a fair bit about the other boy. He was a music major, wanted to be a sound engineer, played guitar, lived with a guy named Harry, loved food, and swore more often than he lost his ID. Liam spent far too much time over the holidays thinking about brown roots and loud laughter considering he didn’t even know if he could consider them friends, much less anything more. He’d only even seen the other boy outside of the dorm once: Niall had been stuffing his face in the dining hall, and Liam had not very subtly stared down the curly-headed boy his crush was eating with until Niall noticed him lurking and introduced the two (apparently this was Harry, the boy Niall had once mentioned was his roommate). Louis wouldn’t stop teasing him about it.

When he got back to school in January, Liam was disappointingly Niall-less for the first week of classes. He was genuinely worried the blonde had finally worked out how to remember his ID card, and while Liam was all for responsibility, he’d grown fond of the scatter-brained tendencies of his maybe-friend.

The second week of the spring semester, Liam was working on his assignments and very resolutely ignoring the paper balls being thrown across the room at him by Louis when the fire alarm went off with a deafening screech (followed by a squeal almost as loud from a very startled Louis, who’d been so surprised he fell several feet off his bed and onto the floor). Liam took fire alarms Very Seriously (he kind of still wanted to be a fireman, actually, but he’d never told anyone), so he pulled Louis off the floor and shepherded him out of the building with their other floormates and all the people trudging down the stairs.

As soon as he was sure he and his roommate were safely away from the building, Liam immediately began scanning the crowd of disgruntled students for a familiar shock of blonde hair. When he couldn’t find Niall, Liam basically began freaking out, or at least that’s how Louis put it later. He frantically craned his neck and stood on his tiptoes, hoping that he’d just missed the boy the first time, but still he came up with nothing. Who he did spot, though, was Harry, casually leaning against a tree in far less clothing than the sub-freezing temperatures required. Liam rushed over to him.

“Where’s your roommate?” he panicked.

“Zayn?” Harry tilted his head in confusion. “He’s right there.” He motioned at a tan, dark-haired young man in a leather jacket who looked none too pleased at finding himself outside in the dead of night mid-winter.

“What? No-- Niall!”

“Niall?” Harry looked at Liam like he thought he was crazy. “Niall doesn’t even live in this building.”

“What?” Nothing was making sense. How could Niall not live in the building? Liam had let him into it the entirety of the last semester. 

“Niall lives in Young, over in North.”

“No--but he--” Liam’s brain felt like it was going in circles.

“Shit…” Harry groaned. “You’re Liam. Fuck, I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Look, I told Niall he was being stupid, alright? I love the guy but he’s been breaking into my dorm for a whole semester and it was time for him to tell you the truth. Just...be gentle. He really likes you.”

Liam didn’t know what else to say, so he returned to Louis in a daze and didn’t really regain normal brain function for the rest of the night.

The next morning, Liam was determined to get everything sorted out. He didn’t attend any of his lectures (a very un-Liam-like course of action) and instead marched his way to the north residential area and made himself comfortable in the entrance of Young Hall. He was prepared to wait all day for Niall to make an appearance, and that was good because he sat there for hours, getting strange looks from many passers-by.

It wasn’t until almost four that Liam finally caught sight of Niall walking towards the building, his shoulders hunched and eyes on his shoes even as he walked through the doors.

“Niall,” Liam choked out, having lost a lot of his confidence now that he was actually facing the other boy.

Niall’s head shot up, clearly surprised and not in a good way. “Fuck! Liam--What are you doing here?”

“Why have you been pretending to live in my building?”

“I didn’t...um…” Niall kept looking around like something in the room might save him. He looked almost like he was going to cry, which was not at all what Liam was going for.

“I’m not mad, I just don’t understand.”

Niall sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “The first time, I was going to see Harry, but I knew he was taking a nap and wasn’t going to come down to let me in. And you were there and I dunno, I just...liked you, I guess. And I just kept showing up, and you thought I lived there and I didn’t know how to tell you I was annoying the shit out of my friends for an excuse to see you. It was stupid…”

Liam knew he probably should have been concerned that Niall felt like he needed to lie to him in order to see him, but his brain had gotten stuck as soon as Niall said he liked him and so he had a stupid grin on his face when Niall managed to gather his courage enough to look him in the eyes again.

“What are you smiling abou--”

Okay, maybe it wasn’t the best idea to swoop in while Niall was mid-sentence and try to kiss him, because really Liam ended up smacking his lips on Niall’s teeth, but they worked it out pretty quickly.


End file.
